Geology became established as a science in the middle to late 1700s. While
some early geologists viewed the fossil-bearing rock layers as products
of the Genesis Flood, one of the common ways in which most early geologists
interpreted the earth was to look at present rates and processes and assume these
rates and processes had acted over millions of years to produce the rocks they
saw. For example, they might observe a river carrying sand to the ocean. They
could measure how fast the sand was accumulating in the ocean and then apply
these rates to a sandstone, roughly calculating how long it took sandstone to
form.

Similar ideas could be applied to rates of erosion to determine how long
it might take a canyon to form or a mountain range to be leveled. This type of
thinking became known as uniformitarianism (the present is the key to the past)
and was promoted by early geologists like James Hutton and Charles Lyell.

These early geologists were very influential in shaping the thinking of later
biologists. For example, Charles Darwin, a good friend of Lyell, applied slow
and gradual uniformitarian processes to biology and developed the theory of
naturalistic evolution, which he published in the Origin of Species in 1859.
Together, these early geologists and biologists used uniformitarian theory as an
atheistic explanation of the earth’s rocks and biology, adding millions of years
to earth history. The earlier biblical ideas of creation, catastrophism, and short
ages were put aside in favor of slow and gradual processes and evolution over
millions of years.

This chapter will document that geological processes that are usually
assumed to be slow and gradual can happen quickly. It will document that
millions of years are not required to explain the earth’s rocks, as Hutton, Lyell,
Darwin, and so many others have assumed.

Rapid Lithification of Sedimentary Rock

Figure 2. Finely laminated sedimentary layers from
the Green River Formation, Wyoming. The U.S. penny
is for scale (1.9 cm diameter). The dark oblongshaped
objects between the laminations are fish
coprolites (feces). As many as ten laminations per mm
can occur in these rocks. Photo by John Whitmore.

Long periods of time are not required to harden rock. Sedimentary rock
generally consists of sediment (mud, sand, or gravel) that has been turned into
rock. Sedimentary rocks include sandstones, shales, and limestones. Sedimentary
rock is usually formed under water and is easy to recognize because of
its many layers. A familiar example would be the layered rocks of the Grand
Canyon (figure 1).

Layers in sedimentary rocks can be seen at small scales too, like the finely
laminated beds from the Green River Formation in Wyoming (figure 2). When
sediment turns into rock, or becomes hard, we say the sediment has become lithified.
Lithification occurs during sediment compaction (which drives out water)
and cementation, or gluing together of the sedimentary grains. The process of
lithification is not time
dependent, but rather dependent
upon whether the rock
becomes compacted or not
and whether a source of
cement is present (usually
a mineral like quartz or calcite).
If these conditions are
met, sediment can be turned
rapidly into rock.

Figure 3. Remains of a clock encased in sedimentary
rock. It was found on a beach along the coast of
Washington state by Dolores Testerman.

Many examples of rock
forming rapidly have been
reported in the creationist literature:
a clock (figure 3),1 a
sparkplug,2 and keys3 have all
been found in cemented sedimentary
rock. Also a hat4 and
a bag of flour5 have been
found petrified. Examples
of bolts, anchors, and bricks
found in beach rock have
also been reported.6 All of
these examples show that
sediment and other materials
can be hardened within
a relatively short time span.
In many of these examples,
rock probably formed as
microbes (microscopic bacteria
and other small organisms)
precipitated calcite
cement, which in turn bound sediments together and/or filled pore spaces. Examples
of rapid lithification of this type include limestones that have been cemented
together on the ocean floor.7

Rapid Formation of Thin, Delicate Rock Layers

Thin, delicate rock layers don’t necessarily represent quiet, docile sedimentary
processes; thin layers of rock can be formed catastrophically. On May 18,
1980, Mount St. Helens violently erupted. It was one of the most well-studied
and scientifically documented volcanic eruptions in earth history, both by conventional
scientists8 and creationists.9

Figure 4. Finely laminated beds produced during a violent
pyroclastic flow from Mount St. Helens on June 12,
1980. Photo by Steve Austin, copyright 1989, Institute
for Creation Research; used by permission.

The volcano remained geologically active during the months and years
following the 1980 eruption. Fresh lava is still oozing out of the volcano today.
During the violent eruptions
of the volcano,
pyroclastic material (hot
volcanic ash and rock)
was thrown from the
volcano with hurricane
force velocity. One of
the most fascinating
discoveries following
the eruption was that
some of these pyroclastic
deposits, those that
contained fine volcanic
ash particles, were thinly
laminated.10 When geologists
see thin layers like this (figure 4), they usually assume that slow, delicate
processes formed the layers (like mud settling to a lake bottom). However, in
this case, the layers were formed during a catastrophic volcanic eruption.

Figure 5. A well-preserved fish (Knightia) from the
Green River Formation, Wyoming. In order for fish to be
preserved like this, before major decay ensues, the fish
must be buried within days of death. Scale in cm. Photo
by John Whitmore.

Figure 6. A fish (Diplomystus) that decayed for several
days before burial, Green River Formation, Wyoming.
Note the sloughed scales. Burial a few days after death,
by a thin layer of calcite mud, arrested the decay and
prevented the fish from complete destruction. Scale in
cm. Photo by John Whitmore.

Other types of
thin, delicate rock layers
can also form quickly
too. Fossil fish are very
abundant in the thin,
laminated mudstones of
the Green River Formation
of Wyoming (figure
2). After death, fish
rot very quickly. Scales
and flesh can slough off
within a matter of days,
and fish can completely
disappear within a week
or two.11 In order for the
Green River fish to be
preserved as well as they
are, it would have been
necessary for a thin layer
of calcite mud to cover
the fish immediately
after death (figure 5).

These thin layers
of mud are what make
up the thin, laminated
layers of the Green River
Formation. If a fish is
not covered immediately, but several days after its death, scales will slough off
and scatter around the fish carcass (figure 6). Because many of the layers in
the Green River Formation contain well-preserved fish, we can conclude that
many of layers were formed within a day or two. A study of fish coprolites
(feces) also concluded that the thin layers must have formed quickly.12 The
Green River Formation was probably made in a post-Flood lake setting where
sediments were accumulating rapidly.13 These few examples of thin layers being
made quickly does not mean that all thinly laminated rock layers have formed
quickly; it shows that some thinly laminated layers can form quickly.

Rapid Erosion

Erosion can happen catastrophically, at scales that are difficult for us to
imagine. When standing along the edge of a canyon and seeing a river in the
bottom, one is inclined to imagine that the very river in the bottom of the gorge
has cut the canyon over long periods of time. However, geologists are realizing
that many canyons have been cut by processes other than rivers that currently
occupy canyons.

Massive erosion during catastrophic flooding occurs by several processes.
This includes abrasion,14 hydraulic action,15 and cavitation.16 The “Little Grand
Canyon” of the Toutle River was cut by a mudflow on March 19, 1982, that
originated from the crater of Mount St. Helens. The abrasive mudflow cut
through rockslide and pumice deposits from the 1980 eruptions. Parts of the
new canyon system are up to 140 feet deep.

Engineer’s Canyon was also cut by the mudflow and is 100 feet deep. There
is a small stream in the bottom of Engineer’s Canyon (figure 7). One would be
inclined to think that this stream was responsible for cutting the canyon over
long periods of time if one did not know the canyon was cut catastrophically by
a mudflow. In this case, the canyon is responsible for the stream; the stream is
not responsible for the canyon.

Figure 7. Engineer’s Canyon, Mount St. Helens, Washington. The canyon was cut by a
mudflow originating from the crater of the volcano on March 19, 1982. The cliff on the
left is about 100 feet high. Note the small stream in the bottom of the canyon. In this
case, the stream did not form the canyon, the canyon came first and is responsible for
the stream being there! Photo by Steve Austin, copyright 1989, Institute for Creation
Research; used by permission.

Other large canyons and valleys are known to have been cut catastrophically
as well. One of the most famous examples is the formation of the Channeled
Scabland17 of eastern Washington state. The catastrophic explanation of the enigmatic
topography is now well accepted, but when it was first proposed in the
1920s by J Harland Bretz,18 it was radical. The idea was not well accepted until
nearly 50 years later, in 1969.

Bretz was trying to explain a whole series of deep, abandoned canyons
(cut in hard, basaltic bedrock), dry waterfalls, deep plunge pools, hanging valleys,
large stream ripples, gravel bars, and large exotic boulders. The Scabland
formed as a glacier blocked the Clark Fork River in Idaho during the Ice Age.
The glacially dammed river caused water to back up and form a huge lake (Lake
Missoula) in western Montana, in places 2,000 feet deep!

Figure 8. Dry Falls, near Coulee City, Washington. This is part of Grand Coulee, a canyon
that is 50 miles long and as much as 900 feet deep, cut during the catastrophic Missoula
Flood. The flood water poured over the lip of this 350-foot escarpment in the center of
the photo, at five times the width of Niagara Falls. The lakes are filled plunge pools (300
feet deep) cut by water cascading over the cliff. Photo by John Whitmore.

Eventually, the ice dam burst, releasing water equivalent in volume to Lakes
Erie and Ontario combined. The water rushed through Idaho and into eastern
Washington, carving the Scabland topography. Hard basaltic bedrock was rapidly
cut by abrasion, hydraulic action, and cavitation (figure 8). As the water
drained into the Pacific Ocean, it created a delta more than 200 mi2 in size. It
took Lake Missoula about two weeks to drain. It has been estimated that at peak
volume, the flood represented about 15 times the combined flow of all the rivers
in the world!19 Catastrophic floods of this magnitude were unthinkable at the
height of uniformitarian geology in the early 1900s. Today, they are becoming
more widely accepted as explanations of large parts of the earth’s topography.20

The origin of the Grand Canyon has been a topic of much speculation.
Conventional geologists have not reached any consensus on its origin. Dr.
Steve Austin, of the Institute for Creation Research, published in 1994 that
the Grand Canyon was cut by a catastrophic flood that originated from post-Flood lakes ponded behind the Kaibab Upwarp.21 In 2000, a symposium was
convened in Grand Canyon National Park to discuss the canyon’s origin. One
paper22 was published that was similar to Austin’s idea, although the authors
gave him no credit. Evidence in favor of the lake failure hypothesis for the
catastrophic carving of the Grand Canyon is growing.

Recent work from the Anza Borrego Desert of California also supports this
theory.23 Austin believes that several lakes ponded behind the Kaibab Upwarp,
containing a volume of about 3,000 mi3 of water, about three times the volume
of Lake Michigan,24 or about six times the volume of Lake Missoula. Austin
proposed that the lakes drained because the limestones of the Kaibab Upwarp,
which held back the ponded water and developed caves (through solution by
carbonic acid), catastrophically piping the water out of the lakes, cutting the
canyon.

When an organism is turned into stone (i.e., fossilized), the process usually
must happen rapidly, or the organism will be lost to decay. Taphonomy is a
relatively new branch of geology that studies everything that happens from the
death of an organism to its inclusion in the fossil record. Many experiments
have been performed to see what happens to all types of animal carcasses in all
types of settings including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial settings.

The goal of many of these experiments is to make actualistic taphonomic
observations so the fossil record can be better understood. One common theme
throughout many of these experiments is rapid disintegration of soft animal
tissue. In the absence of scavengers, bacteria and other microbes can rapidly
digest animal carcasses in nearly all types of environments. For example, I have
documented that fish can completely disintegrate in time frames from days
to weeks in both natural and laboratory settings under all types of variable
conditions (temperature, depth, oxygen levels, salinity, and species).11 The
taphonomic literature has shown this is generally true for many other types of
organisms as well.26

Simply put, in order for an animal carcass to be turned into a fossil, it must
be sequestered from decay very soon after death. The most common way for
this to happen is via deep rapid burial so the organism can be protected from
scavengers that may churn through the sediment in search of nutrients. Many
fossil deposits around the world are considered to be Lagerstätten deposits (like
the Green River Formation), or deposits that contain abundant fossils with
exceptional preservation. It is widely recognized that most of these deposits
were formed by catastrophic, rapid burial of animal carcasses.27

Common experience tells us that soft tissues disappear quickly if something
doesn’t happen to prevent their decay. However, what about the hard
parts of organisms, like clam or snail shells? Shouldn’t they be able to last
almost indefinitely without being buried? Numerous experiments have been
completed, watching what happens to shells on the ocean floor over time.26 Not
surprisingly, these experiments have shown that thick, durable shells last longer
than thin, fragile shells.

If the fossil record has accumulated by slow gradual processes, like those that
are occurring in today’s oceans, then the fossil record should be biased toward
thick, durable shells and against thin, fragile shells. This was exactly the hypothesis
that a recent paper tested.28 The authors used the online Paleobiology Data
Base, consisting of extensive fossil data from all over the world and throughout
geologic time. Contrary to their expectations, they found thin, fragile material is
just as likely to be found in the fossil record as thick, durable material. A reasonable
interpretation of this finding (which the authors did not consider) is that
much of the fossil record was produced catastrophically! This finding supports
the hypothesis that much of the record was produced rapidly, during the Flood.

Rapid Coal Formation

Coal does not take long periods of time to form. Coal forms from peat,
which is highly degraded wood and plant material. Peat looks much like coffee
grounds or peat moss. During the Flood, large quantities of peat were likely
produced and buried as a result of pre-Flood vegetation being ripped up and
destroyed.

The extensive coal beds we find throughout the world may have also been
the result of pre-Flood floating forests that were destroyed and buried.29 Coal
has been produced experimentally in the laboratory from wood and peat.30
Most of these experiments have used reasonable geologic conditions of temperature
(212–390°F, 100–200°C) and pressure (to simulate depth of burial).
These experiments have succeeded in producing coal in just weeks of time. It
appears time is probably not a significant factor in coal formation. The most
important factors appear to be the quality of the organic material (peat), heat,
and pressure (depth of burial).

Rapid Formation of Salt Deposits

Salt deposits can form in other places and in other ways besides large salt
lakes that evaporate over long periods of time (like the Great Salt Lake in Utah
or the Dead Sea in Israel). Geologists have traditionally interpreted thick salt
deposits as evaporites. In other words, they picture a large basin of seawater (like
the Mediterranean Sea) being enclosed and sealed off from the surrounding
ocean. The confined salt water evaporates, forming a thick deposit of salt on the
bottom of the basin.

Conventional scientists have recognized that this model is fraught with many
paradoxes and unresolved problems.31 Recently, a new theory of salt formation
has been proposed that overcomes some of these difficulties.32 This theory points
out that salt is not very soluble33 at high temperatures and pressures. These situations
are common near deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The authors cite examples
from the Red Sea and Lake Asale (Ethiopia) where these situations exist and are
associated with abundant salts. Several times throughout the paper, the authors
cite that rapid deposition of the salt with accompanying rapid sedimentation
rates are necessary conditions for the salt to be preserved. If the salt is not rapidly
covered, it will dissolve back into the seawater when the conditions change.

Under certain conditions, coral reefs can grow rapidly. Modern coral reefs
are often small accumulations of corals, coralline algae, and other organisms
that secrete calcium carbonate (calcite, the main ingredient of limestone) exoskeletons.
However, some can be massive and thick, like the Great Barrier Reef
(thickness of 180 feet [55 m])35 off the coast of Australia or Eniwetok Atoll36
(thickness of 4,590 feet [1,400 m])37 in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific.
Some have argued that because of the slow growth rate of corals, large reefs
need tens of thousands of years to grow.38 Corals, which build coral reefs, have
been reported to grow as much as 4 to 17 inches (99–432 mm) per year.39

Large coral accumulations have been found on sunken World War II
ships after only several decades.40Acropora colonies have reached 23–31 inches
(60–80 cm) in diameter in just 4.5 years in some experimental rehabilitation
studies.41 At the highest known growth rates, the Eniwetok Atoll (the thickest
known reef at 4,590 feet [1,400 m]) would have taken about 3,240 years to
rise from the ocean floor. However, coral growth rate is not equal to reef growth
rate; it is usually much less. Reef growth is a balance between constructive and
destructive processes and has proved particularly difficult to measure. Reefs are
constructed by coral growth and sediment, which settles and becomes cemented
between reef organisms.

Modern reefs are destroyed by a number of processes, including active
bioeroders (parrotfish, sea urchins), chemical dissolution, boring organisms
(sponges, clams, and various worms), tsunamis, and storm waves. Reef growth
occurs by the addition of mass, particularly from corals. Reef volume increases
as living animals and their dead remains become cemented together with sediments
to form the reef. Reef growth slows or even stops as the reef reaches sea
level, because the reef organisms need to be submerged in water. Hence, the
growth rate of a reef is slower than that of fast-growing corals.

So how might a thick reef, like the Eniwetok Atoll, have grown from the
ocean floor since the time of the Flood? The Eniwetok Atoll is not made completely
of corals that have grown on top of each other. Drilling operations into
the atoll have shown that a significant amount of the material (up to 70 percent
of the bore hole) was “soft, fine, white chalky limestone,”36not well-cemented
reef limestone. It may be significant that this atoll, along with many of the other
atolls in the western Pacific, ultimately rise from volcanic pedestals. It is known
that heat coming from these volcanoes draws cold, nutrient-rich water into the
cavernous atoll framework and circulates it upward, through the atoll via convection.
This process is called geothermal endo-upwellling42 and helps provide
nutrients to the reef organisms near sea level.

Figure 9. How geothermal endo-upwelling
might explain thick “reef”
accumulations since the time of the
Flood. The process is explained in the
text.

Here is a possible scenario of how the Eniwetok Atoll may have become
so thick in the few thousand years since the Flood (figure 9). The reef began
as a volcanic platform. Carbonates (limestones) began to accumulate on the
platform as the result of bacteria and other organisms that can precipitate calcite,
especially in volcanically warmed water. This produced much of the “soft,
fine, chalky limestone” found within the reef. Carbonate-producing organisms
(like corals) were brought
to the platform as small
larval forms, transported
by ocean currents. This
explains the occasional
occurrence of various
corals and mollusks found
within the deeper parts of
the drill core. The volcanic
heat source allowed
the carbonate mound to
grow, deep below sea level, and the process of geothermal endo-upwelling to
begin. The combination of nutrient supply and heat may have allowed the carbonate
mound to grow much faster than observed coral reef growth rates today.
As the carbonate mound approached sea level, shallow water reef corals were
permanently established and thrived as a result of the upwelling process.

Concluding Remarks

Figure 10. Today, conventional geologists
still believe that the earth is millions of
years old. However, they believe that
individual rock layers may represent
short periods of time, or “events.” So
where do they put all of the time? The
time is placed in between the layers (at
the arrows). Each event (A, B, C, D, E)
represents a short period of time, but
each arrow represents a long period of
time, or “hiatus.” During the hiatus,
either perfectly flat erosion levels the
surface before the next event (removing
accumulated deposits), or nondeposition
occurs over millions of years.

Many modern geologists realize that most rocks contain evidence of rapid
accumulation. However, the idea that the earth is millions of years old is still a
common belief. So if the time is not within the rocks, where is it? Many believe
the time is within the “cracks” or “hiatuses” between the rocks (see figure 10).
Derek Ager, who was not friendly toward creationist ideas, explained it like this:
“The history of any one part of the earth, like the life of a soldier, consists of
long periods of boredom and short periods of terror.”43 He viewed most of the
physical rock record as accumulating quickly (i.e., “the short periods of terror”)
and the breaks in between rock layers representing long periods of time (i.e.,
“the long periods of boredom”). In other words, the “breaks” or “cracks” are
where most of the time is placed. The belief then is that these surfaces represent
either long periods of nondeposition
or surfaces of perfectly flat erosion.
But both of these propositions have
problems. For example, if a surface
is exposed for long periods of time, why don’t organisms churning through
the mud extensively disturb the sediments below the surface? In observational
studies, it is estimated that bottom-dwelling organisms can rework the annual
sediment accumulation several times over!44

This chapter has only examined a few processes in geology that are assumed
to take long periods of time. There are many more issues that could be addressed.
Today, ideas of uniformitarianism are fading quickly in geology. In fact, many
conventional geologists would like to abandon the idea of uniformitarianism
altogether, although they are careful not to advocate biblical catastrophism.45

Conventional geologists are recognizing that catastrophic processes can
form many parts of the geologic record, and this is being widely reported in the
literature.46 The eventual nemesis will be time. Time will continue to be placed
in between the rocks, not because there is evidence for it, but that is the only
place left for it.47 Conventional geological paradigms demand long periods of
time be accounted for, whether there is evidence for it or not.

The New Answers Book 2

People complain about The New Answers Book. They say that it’s so good at giving short, substantive answers that they want more. Well, we listened! In The New Answers Book 2 you’ll find 31 more great answers to big questions for the Christian life. Many view the original New Answers Book as an essential tool for modern discipleship. Both of these books answer such questions as: Can natural processes explain the origin of life? Can creationists be real scientists? Where did Cain get his wife? Is evolution a religion? and more!

For example, see P.W. Lipman and D.R. Mullineaux, eds., The 1980 Eruptions of Mount St.
Helens, Washington, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1250 (Washington, D.C.:
United States Government Printing Office, 1981).

Abrasion is wearing away of bedrock by particles that are being carried in the water or along
the stream bottom. As rocks and sand are being carried along, they grind away the bedrock
on the stream bottom. The process is similar to smoothing a piece of wood with sandpaper.

Hydraulic action is erosion of bedrock by the shee r force or energy of the water. Water
moving at great speeds can work its way into cracks and force rocks apart, can slam
boulders against a cliff face, causing rocks to crumble, and can pluck large pieces of bedrock
from the stream bottom.

Cavitation is erosion by exceedingly rapidly moving water that creates vacuum bubbles as
it flows across imperfections or depressions in a bedrock surface. As the vacuum bubbles
implode (collapse violently in on themselves), they can destroy the bedrock below them,
acting like sledgehammer blows. Cavitation has been known to quickly deteriorate bedrock,
cement, and even steel. For example, rapidly rotating submarine propellers can create
vacuum bubbles that destroy the propeller and the rudder behind it, removing large chunks
of steel. A concrete spillway tunnel was damaged by cavitation in the Glen Canyon Dam in
1983. Cavitation produced a 32- x 40- x 150-foot hole in the bottom of a 40-foot diameter,
3-foot thick, steel-reinforced concrete spillway (Austin, Grand Canyon: Monument to
Catastrophe, p. 104–107).

The Scablands are a whole series of deep, abandoned canyons, hundreds of feet deep, cut
into hard, basaltic bedrock.

An excellent creationist summary on the formation of the Channeled Scabland region
can be found in M.J. Oard, “Evidence for Only One Gigantic Lake Missoula Flood,”
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism, ed. R.L. Ivey Jr. (Pittsburgh,
PA: Creation Science Fellowship, 2003), p. 219–231.

Austin, Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe, p. 83–110. Whitmore and Austin
discussed and independently originated this idea in 1985, while Whitmore was a graduate
student at ICR. The first person to originate this idea may have been E. Blackwelder in
1934 (GSA Bulletin, v. 45, p. 551–566).

N. Meek and J. Douglass, “Lake Overflow: An Alternative Hypothesis for Grand Canyon
Incision and Development of the Colorado River” in Colorado River Origin and Evolution,
eds. R.A. Young and E.E. Spamer, Proceedings of a Symposium held at Grand Canyon
National Park in June 2000 (Grand Canyon, AZ: Grand Canyon Association, 2001), p.
199–204.

An expanded version of this section can be found in Whitmore, “Fossil Preservation,” in
Rock Solid Answers: Responses to Popular Objections to Flood Geology, eds. M.J. Oard and J.K.
Reed (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, in press).

For good reviews of the literature see S.M. Kidwell and K.W. Flessa, “The Quality of the
Fossil Record: Populations, Species, and Communities,” Annual Reviews of Ecology and
Systematics 26 (1995): 269–299; or P.A. Allison and D.E.G. Briggs, eds., Taphonomy:
Releasing the Data Locked in the Fossil Record (New York: Plenum Press, 1991).

If something is not very soluble, it means that it can’t dissolve easily, or it will come out of
solution easily and form a solid precipitate.

An expanded version of this section can be found in: Whitmore, “Modern and Ancient
Reefs,” in Rock Solid Answers: Responses to Popular Objections to Flood Geology, eds. M.J.
Oard and J.K. Reed (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, in press).

An atoll is a circular reef with a central lagoon that rises from the deep ocean floor, not the
continental shelf like the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. It has been documented that most
atolls sit on volcanic pedestals.

W.A. Berggren and J.A. Van Couvering, eds., Catastrophes and Earth History; the New
Uniformitarianism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984). This book is a
collection of 18 essays. Note especially the essays by S.J. Gould (chapter 1) and D.V. Ager
(chapter 4).

One example of an attempt to place time in between rock layers is carbonate hardgrounds.
These are hardened cement-like surfaces that occur on the ocean floor. It is often claimed
these surfaces occur in the rock record, too, and represent surfaces where long periods of
time passed. Creationists have recently begun to address hardgrounds at a classic site in
Ohio: J. Woodmorappe, and J.H. Whitmore, “Field Study of Purported Hardgrounds of
the Cincinnatian,” TJ 18, no. 3 (2004): 82–92, 2004; J. Woodmorappe, “Hardgrounds and
the Flood: The Need for a Re-evaluation,” Journal of Creation 20, no. 3 (2006): 104–110.